Birnbeck Island, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset - so near but so far

Birnbeck Island is very unusual in that it is connected to the mainland by a pier.  I am not sure of the exact difference between a pier and a bridge but it is always described as a pier in this case.  However the pier has been in a dilapidated state for some years and was closed to the public in 1994 because it was deemed unsafe, so I have not been able to visit it.

In 1847 work began on a suspension bridge to the island but this was never completed due to bad weather, bankruptcy and strikes.  

The foundation stone of Birnbeck Pier was laid on 28th October 1864 and it was officially opened on 6th June 1867.  It was designed by Eugenius Birch (1818-84), who designed 14 piers around Britain.  It consisted of a 317 metre long pier between the mainland and Birnbeck Island and a 12 metre long timber and iron jetty, which extended westwards,

Many of the visitors to Birnbeck Pier arrived by paddle steamers.  It was particularly popular with visitors from South Wales, as pubs used to be closed in Wales on Sundays.  The original jetty was dismantled in 1872 and was replaced by one, which was 76 metres long, on the north side of the island.  A stone pavilion, containing a concert hall and refreshment rooms, was built on the island in 1884.  The pavilion burnt down in December 1897 but was replaced by a building designed by Hans Price & Walter Wooler in 1898.

Another jetty was built on the south west side of Birnbeck Island in 1898, which reached deep water even at low tide.  Both jetties were damaged in a storm in 1903.  The northern jetty was rebuilt in steel and extended to 91 metres in length: it is still there.  The south west jetty was rebuilt in 1909 but closed in 1916 and was dismantled in 1923. 

The RNLI opened a lifeboat station on Birnbeck Island in 1882. In 1889 a boathouse was built on the north east side of the island.  This was replaced in 1902 by a boathouse on the south east side of the island, which had a slipway that was long enough to allow launching even at almost all states of the tide.

Birnbeck Pier suffered a loss in trade when the Grand Pier opened to the south in 1904.  However steamers were unable to moor alongside the Grand Pier, so Birnbeck Pier kept its monopoly.  Fairground rides, such as a helter-skelter, merry-go-round, switchback railway,  water chute and flying machine were built on Birnbeck Island in the early years of the 20th century. In 1909 the southern end of Birnbeck Pier was enlarged by the construction of a concrete platform.  This new area housed a roller skating rink, a bio-scope (cinema) and a theatre.

In 1941 the island was taken over by the Admiralty and used by the Department for Miscellaneous Weapons Development.  It was closed to the public.  After the Second World War it was given back to its owners.  It then had a succession of owners.  The last scheduled sailing from the pier was made by the MV Balmoral in 1979.

In 1984 the pier was damaged by equipment that drifted into it while work was being carried out in Sand Bay to the north of the pier.  It was repaired but was badly damaged by storms in 1990 and was closed to the public for safety reasons in 1994.  

The RNLI carried on using the pier to access their lifeboat on Birnbeck Island until 2013 when they decided it was too unsafe for their crews to use any more.  They moved to a temporary boathouse near Knightstone Island. The pier was badly damaged in a storm in December 2015 and a section of the walkway collapsed into the sea.

There have been several plans to redevelop Birnbeck Pier and open it again since it closed in 1994 but so far none have come to fruition.  I wish they would hurry up, as this island, although tantalisingly close, is currently unvisitable.

2022 update: North Somerset Council issued a Compulsory Purchase Order to the owners of Birnbeck Pier and Island in 2020 and purchased it from them in 2021.  They are planning to work together with the RNLI to renovate the pier and allow public access once more. 

Birnbeck Pier from Prince Consort Gardens, Weston-super-Mare

Birnbeck Island from the Flat Holm Ferry
 

 RNLI 1902 Lifeboat House on Birnbeck Island

 

Birnbeck Pier and Island from Anchor Head in March 2017

 

Birnbeck Pier and Island in March 2017

 

RNLI Lifeboat House on Birnbeck Island

Island 209 - Knightstone Island, Weston-super-Mare

I have been undecided whether or not to include Knightstone Island in my island 'collection', as it is now firmly joined on to the northern end of Weston-super-Mare's seafront.  However on a map dated 1806 it is shown as a separate island with a tidal causeway.

 Plan of Weston-super-Mare showing Knightstone Island in 1806.  

From The First Guide to Weston-super-Mare 1822, edited by Ernest Baker and reprinted in 1901.

Knightstone Island was acquired by the Pigott family in 1696 (they later became the Smyth-Pigotts) and they owned it until the early 19th century.  The island was used for fishing and as Weston-super-Mare's first coal yard.  It was purchased in 1820 by Mr John Howe from Bristol.  He constructed the first medicinal baths there, which were rented in 1822 by Benjamin Atwell.  There were hot and cold saltwater baths, a lodging house, public refreshment rooms and a reading room.  At that time the island was connected to the mainland by a natural pebble ridge, which was covered at high tide.

Reverend Thomas Pruen bought Knightstone in 1824. He commissioned the construction of a causeway to the island, which was built above the high tide level, and a low pier, which was used by pleasure boats.  He also built an open-air tidal swimming pool on the shore, which was replenished by seawater at every high tide.  This was extended into the current Marine Lake in 1929.

Dr Edward Long Fox (1761-1835), a physician from Brislington, bought Knightstone Island in 1828. He thought that sea bathing was a good treatment for both mental and physical illnesses. He and his son Dr Francis Ker Fox (1805-83) carried out further developments on the island, including raising the level of the causeway using Cornish granite, building a lodging house for patients and a new bath house (1832). 

The island changed hands several more times after 1847 and the buildings on it were rebuilt or re-modelled several times. In 1880 it was bought by Mr Griffiths, who enlarged the open air pool and built a covered pool for women on the north side.  In 1894 Arthur's Tower and the other lodging houses on the island were demolished.

The island was eventually bought by the Weston Urban District Council c1896.  They enlarged the island by building a new retaining wall on the north eastern side.  They built a new swimming pool and a Pavilion, which both opened in May 1902.  The Pavilion was designed by the architect J.S. Stewart and included refreshment rooms, a reading room, a billiard room and a theatre.  It had electric lighting and a hot water heating system.  Seawater was used in the swimming pool and a huge settling tank was constructed underneath the pool and Pavilion.

In September 1903 hundreds of people were temporarily marooned on the island and Eddie Bryant, the Pavilion's electrical engineer, was drowned when the causeway was swept away in a storm during a performance at the theatre.

Band concerts, plays, operas and other shows were performed at the Knightstone Pavilion and films were shown but the stage was too small for large productions.

By the 1970s Knightstone Pavilion was struggling financially and it finally closed in 1991.  There were plans to convert the site into a leisure complex but these never came to anything and the buildings on Knightstone Island gradually deteriorated.

In 2006-7 the whole island was redeveloped.  The Bath House and front section of the ground floor of the Pavilion were converted into commercial premises.  The rest of the Pavilion and the swimming pool were converted into homes and two new apartment blocks were built on the island.

The Queen visited to re-open the island's perimeter walkway on 20th July 2007.  The Coronation Promenade was first opened in 1953 to celebrate her coronation.

 Entrances to the Bath House on the left and Swimming Pool on the right

 The Bristol Queen and the Westward Ho (Flat Holm ferry) at Knightstone Quay.

The Bristol Queen was looking very worse for wear in October 2013

 Knightstone Island in 2017
 

 The island has been altered from its natural state so much that it is only from the sea that you can see some of the original rocks

Former Swimming Pool

Knightstone Island from across the Marine Lake

  

Entrance to the former Swimming Pool

Former Pavilion

 

Garden of Dr Fox's Tearoom (the old Bath House)

 

Looking north west along the Marine Lake towards Anchor Head

 

 Plaque commemorating the re-opening of the Coronation Promenade by the Queen on 20th July 2007

Let it Shine mural by Mishfit

This was painted as part of the Western Wallz Project 2023

Isle of Wight - A look beyond the obvious - see also Island 6

I had previously visited the Isle of Wight (see Island No 6) on 3 occasions - twice as a tourist and once as a volunteer working for the National Trust for a week. In August 2013 I was invited to join the Bedford Outdoor Group for a 5 day walking holiday.   My first impressions as I landed at Yarmouth were that the roads were very congested, particularly around Newport.  This was to be expected on an August Bank Holiday weekend on an island where tourism is a major part of the economy.  However we found that away from the tourist honeypots it was possible to find peace and tranquillity even in the height of summer.

During our visit I tried to find some of the less obvious places of interest on the island.

2022 update: I visited the Isle of Wight again for a week of almost unbroken sunshine in March 2022 and found a few more less obvious places of interest:


Hoy Monument, St Catherine's Down

Michael Hoy, who was a British entrepreneur with shops in St Petersburg and a thriving import/export trade with Russia, had the monument erected to commemorate the visit to Britain, in 1814, of Tsar Alexander the 1st, Emperor of all the Russias’.  Tsar Alexander didn't actually visit the Isle of Wight however - the nearest he got to it was Portsmouth.  The monument is 72 feet high and is built of local stone.  Michael Hoy owned a large amount of land on the Isle of Wight and lived nearby for several years.

St Mildred's Church, Whippingham

Prince Albert is supposed to have had a say in the design of this church but the architect was Albert Jenkins Humbert.  It was built in a Rhenish Gothic style with Norman and Italian Romanesque influences between 1854 and 1862.  More importantly it has a small café adjacent to the car park.   It is close to Osborne House and contains memorials to various members of the royal family.

 Thatched Church at Freshwater
St Agnes's Church was built in 1908 by the architect Isaac Jones.

Italian style Catholic Church at Totland

 Well dressing at Whitwell
I have come across the custom of creating decorations around holy wells by pressing flower petals into clay in Derbyshire but was not aware that it also went on in the Isle of Wight.

 This wooden lady sculpture is located in Kelly's Copse near Brading

It is in memory of Camilla Petersen, a Danish student who was murdered while sketching on Brading Down in July 2002 by Richard Kemp from Gosport.

Gribble Seat at Yarmouth
A gribble is a tiny marine isopod that eats wood.  It is here in Yarmouth because Yarmouth Pier suffered damage from these little creatures and has recently been restored.


Gribble seat in 2022 - minus an antenna

 Bembridge
I don't know where these tree stumps have come from but they are quite photogenic

Tree Trunks on Bembridge Beach 2022

Bembridge Lifeboat Station

The walkway and offshore lifeboat station were completed in October 2010.  It is open to the public and is well worth a visit.

St Helens Old Church

A Benedictine priory was founded at St Helens by French monks after 1066.  It was dedicated to St Helena, who was the wife of the Roman emperor Constantine.  The village was subsequently named after her.  A tower was added in the 13th century but the monastery was disbanded due to financial problems in 1414.  It was given to Eton College, who owned it until 1799 but they didn't maintain it and it gradually fell into ruin, with many of the stones being taken away and used for various purposes.  Eventually only the tower remained.  This was bricked up in 1719 and the seaward side was painted white to act as a seamark for sailors.  It still has this purpose in association with the seamark on Ashey Down. In the 18th century a new church was built further inland.

 An unusual 3 dimensional village sign at Brading
(with a geocache)

Bus shaped flower planter at Yarmouth Ferry Terminal

 The Longstone - above Mottistone

The Longstone

 These two chaps guard the entrance to Osborne House

Mosaic in Yarmouth

"Boat house" near Chilton Chine

Mural at Bembridge

Pilot Boat Inn, Bembridge

Designed to look like a boat

Cowes Mural

Red squirrel carvings at Shanklin Church

Mossy cascade at Ventnor

Carved seat in Yarmouth